Earlier this year, the RIAA claimed a victory against LimeWire for a $105 million settlement of its copyright infringement case against the late P2P giant. In the highly publicized copyright infringement case, LimeWire agreed to pay up to settle the claims of major record labels that it was responsible for widespread music piracy. Now, smaller independent record labels are seeking an equivalent share.

Earlier this month, a New York jury awarded nearly $1.2 Million to former DJ Orrin Lynn Tolliver, Jr. in a dispute over a sample used in The Black Eyed Peas’ hit song “My Humps.”

Tolliver, who formed an early hip-hop group in the 80’s called Sexual Harassment, collaborated with his friend and producer James McCants to record a song called “I Need A Freak” at McCants’ studio in Cleveland. Tolliver composed the music and lyrics for the song, but worked with McCants at his studio to record the song. McCants registered the song with BMI, giving songwriter credit to Tolliver. Years later, McCants granted licenses for use of the song, infringing on Tolliver’s copyright as songwriter and denying him his share of the royalties. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, a group of major internet service providers (ISPs)—including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable—all agreed to a new enforcement plan against music and movie piracy. The internet giants signed a voluntary “Memorandum of Understanding” with content owner representatives (including the RIAA and MPAA) to create standard practices of “copyright alerts” directed at users flagged for possible infringement.

Singer Katy Perry, of “I kissed a girl, and I liked it” fame, has been threatened with a lawsuit over her use of the Beach Boys’ timeless line, “I wish they all could be California Girls,” in her hit song “California Gurls.” Rapper Snoop Dogg recites the Beach Boys’ classic lyric at the end of Perry’s summer anthem, which has sold more than 3 million copies to date.

Rondor Music, who owns the rights to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls,” has sent a letter to Capitol Records, Perry’s record label, demanding that Mike Love and Brian Wilson – the two Beach Boys who actually scribed the 1965 Billboard hit – be given a writing credit and a portion of the royalties for Perry’s chart topper.

In a recent E! News interview, a spokesperson for Rondor Music chastised Katy Perry, as well as the writers and publishers of “California Gurls,” saying, “Using the words or melody in a new song taken from an original work is not appropriate under any circumstances, particularly one as well-known and iconic as ‘California Girls.’” The spokesperson elaborated, stating that “Rondor Music…is committed to protecting the rights of its artists and songwriters, and with the support of the writers, that is exactly what we are doing.”

The Beach Boys, however, are singing a decidedly different tune. When asked for his thoughts on “California Gurls,” Mike Love insisted that “[t]he Beach Boys are definitely not suing Katy Perry, in fact we are flattered that her fantastically successful song is bringing to mind to millions of people our 1965 recording of the Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls.’” In harmony with his co-writer and band mate, Brian Wilson similarly stated, “We think her song is great and wish her all the success in the world.”

As with any copyright infringement case, the legal issues that would need to be addressed if this case were to proceed include whether the lyrics “I wish they all could be California Girls” are sufficiently original to be entitled to copyright protection.

Jeopardy Facts about the Beach Boys’
“California Girls”

“California Girls” is part of the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.”

In 2004, “California Girls” was ranked #71 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

This post discusses some of the common ways in which music is used on the Internet and the types of licenses required. Please see my earlier post describing common music licenses. A chart summarizing the licenses required for Internet uses is avaliabe here. Read the rest of this entry »

Like any other property, music copyrights and the individual exclusive rights thereof, can be transferred, sold, licensed, and divided among several owners. In general, to use recorded copyrighted music, you will need permission from both the musical work owner (typically a publisher) and the sound recording owner (typically a record company). Note, however, if you re-record a song (instead of using a pre-recorded version), permission is only required from the musical work owner (since you are not using someone else’s sound recording).

Following are descriptions of common music licensing agreements. In a later post, I will discuss some of the specific ways in which music is used on the Internet and the types of licenses required. Read the rest of this entry »

A group of television station owners has filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit against SESAC and its affiliated composers and music publishers. SESAC is a for-profit company that licenses public performance rights to copyrighted music compositions. The complaint (“Complaint”) filed in a United States District Court in New York alleges that SESAC has engaged in anti-competitive behavior in violation of federal antitrust laws. Read the rest of this entry »

People often assume lawyers just use “form books” for contracts. I’m sometimes asked questions like: Don’t you just have a form for that? Can’t you just send me the standard form agreement? Can you quickly look over this agreement I did myself on the internet?

The fact is that virtually every contract involves unique circumstances. In the case of copyright transfers and licensing, contractual language can be critical. Under the Copyright Act, a written and signed document is required to transfer ownership of a copyright or to transfer exclusive rights to a copyright.

Recently, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that publishers are not entitled to public performance royalties for mobile phone ringtones. SeeIn re Cellco Partnership, 2009 WL 3294861 (2009). For the past few years, publishers have argued that mobile phone carriers should pay copyright performance royalties when ringtones are downloaded and used by mobile phone customers. Read the rest of this entry »

A common misconception is that all “old” songs are not protected by copyright law. While this is certainly true in some cases, it’s important to understand that determining the length of copyright protection for any particular song is not that simple. Copyright protection can last for a very long time. Read the rest of this entry »